No doubt it was taken from a wreck, like so much of the furniture in old Cornish houses." "You seem to know a lot about old clocks." Mr.Brimsdown, astride his favourite hobby, rode it irresistibly.

He discoursed of clocks and their makers, and Barrant listened in silence.
The subject was not without its fascination for him, because it suggested a strange train of thought about the hood clock which was the text, as it were, of the lawyer's discourse.

He looked up.

Mr.Brimsdown, in front of the clock, was discoursing about dials and pendulums.

Barrant broke in abruptly with the question on his mind-- "Can you, with your knowledge of old clocks, suggest any reason which would cause Robert Turold to go to it?
Are the works intricate?
Would such a clock require much adjustment ?" "Robert Turold was not likely to think of adjusting a clock in his dying moments," returned Mr.Brimsdown, with a glance which betokened that he perfectly understood his companion had some other reason for his question.
"There's a smear of blood on the dial," said Barrant, staring at it.
"Was that made by the right or left hand ?" "The right hand was resting on the clock-face.